Topband: Merry Christmas!

[Bill Tippett]

Hello Topbanders!

        Here are some Christmas gifts for your stockings:

1.  Anti-spam filter.  Thanks to David K3KY for alerting me to
MailWasher...a freeware program that can be used to filter incoming
messages for spam.  It allows you to delete them and even bounce
them back to the sender as though your address was bad.  It does 
this from your POP server so you never even download them to your 
computer.  See this site for more info and to download:

                http://www.mailwasher.net/

Here's a great site with keywords for your MailWasher filters:

                http://www.pgh.net/~newcomer/mail_policies.htm

2.  Personal firewall.  Make yourself invisible to attackers that could
take contol of your computer with ZoneAlarm...another free program at:

                http://www.zonelabs.com/

In addition, ZoneAlarm functions as an effective anti-virus although
you should have one of those anyway.  In case you ever beocme infected 
with a virus, use PC-Cillin's Housecall to diagnose and cure it in your
computer:

                http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_pcc.asp

        I hope these help you as much as they have me...I especially 
love watching MailWasher filter spam and then send a "bounce" message 
back to the sender!

        Best wishes to you and your families for Happy Holydays and 
good luck in 2002!

                                                73,  Bill  W4ZV